A launch vehicle’s ascent battles gravity to gain orbital velocity, while re-entry is a controlled struggle against the atmosphere to systematically shed that immense kinetic energy through ...

When part of a SpaceX rocket re-entered Earth's atmosphere exactly a year ago, it created a spectacuglar fireball that ...

Space junk returning to Earth is introducing metal pollution to the pristine upper atmosphere as it burns up on re-entry, a new study has found.

A plume of upper-atmospheric lithium pollution observed in February 2025 has been attributed to the re-entry of a specific rocket stage. The results, published in Communications Earth & Environment, ...

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket burned up during an uncontrolled re-entry and left behind a detectable plume of chemical pollution in the upper atmosphere, adding fresh evidence to a growing body of research ...

Abstract: The Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) provides a quick-turnaround, low-cost platform to conduct atmospheric entry experiments. KRUPS is designed to test multiple types of ...

Abstract: The design of next-generation, high-speed flight vehicles requires a combination of robust flow simulations and low-uncertainty ground test data. Although high-fidelity modeling advancements ...

Scientists have detected a plume of lithium pollution in Earth’s upper atmosphere and traced it to the re-entry of a SpaceX ...